Defensively, Buffalo neutralized Arizona’s size inside by collapsing on the paint, forcing the Wildcats to shoot from the perimeter.
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Just when all of the tables in the greater Buffalo area thought they were safe until at least September, the Bulls stroll into the NCAA tournament and pull off the biggest upset of day one.
To most of the country, the barely talked about MAC champs – and all their 26 wins – weren’t expected to do much of anything. It’s tough to imagine Buffalo will look as good against Kentucky just because John Calipari’s team will get after it and, you’d imagine, match their intensity.
But they didn’t feel that way.
Arizona went on to become the second team in conference history to sweep the regular-season and tournament titles in consecutive seasons, earning the Wildcats a No. 4 seed.
Hawkins said; “I was shocked when Nate said at halftime, ‘we think we have the better team”.
What had begun with such promise at Arizona not quite a decade ago, with Miller taking a group of players with marginal recruiting pedigree to an improbable Elite Eight run in his second season, was fouled – perhaps irretrievably – on the day authorities arrested his longtime assistant coach Book Richardson as part of the federal probe into irregularities in the basketball talent business. The Bulls don’t have a single seven-foot player, and they only have three players at 6-foot-10 or taller.
It’s not often Mid-American Conference teams get NCAA tournament at-large bids, but Buffalo did – and the Bulls proved they deserved it.
On offence they’ve got five guys who score in double figures and, stylistically, they play a lot like No. 1 overall seed Virginia. Four days later, he had the best game of his career, scoring 39 points including the winning layup in the closing seconds to beat San Diego State 67-65, giving the sixth-seeded Cougars their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1984. The Bulls were really running in their opener vs. Arizona, connecting on an incredible 15-of-30 3-point attempts. They want this to be a fast-paced game.
Fortunately for Obama, his Final Four teams are still standing for the moment.
The Nebraska women’s basketball team tipped off play in the NCAA Tournament against Arizona State Saturday afternoon.
CJ Massinburg had 19 points and six rebounds, and Nick Perkins scored all of his 13 points in the second half for the Bulls (27-8).
Dusan Ristic had 16 points, Deandre Ayton had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Allonzo Trier had 10 points for the Wildcats (27-8).
It’s also going to come down to Kentucky matching Buffalo’s intense passion as the Bulls will not be intimidated.
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Kentucky struggled a bit, beating Davidson by five points. The number of social media mentions and new text messages were too overwhelming to count, but the sucking of battery life was worth it. Based on that game alone, the biggest thing that impressed me was the fearless mindset. And this time of year, sometimes that’s all that matters.
